Historically, traumatic experiences and stressors in childhood have been overlooked as predisposing factors in the development of several chronic pain and psychiatric disorders, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic fatigue syndrome. However, the situation is changing as research reveals a significant correlation between childhood trauma and adult health.
The central nervous system develops rapidly during childhood and is conditioned to respond to various stimuli and stressors encountered in life. When a variety of environmental stimuli are encountered, new pathways are created between brain cells in response to each stimulus. For example, a pleasurable experience, such as a hug from a parent or a piece of candy, creates pathways that teach the brain to respond pleasurably to those stimuli. Similarly, a frightening experience will create and exercise pathways that respond with fear. This process of creating new pathways in response to stimuli is known as neuroplasticity. As we age, neuroplasticity decreases, meaning it is more difficult to develop new pathways and adjust our brain’s responses to stimuli. Children have a distinct advantage by possessing a high degree of neuroplasticity. However, this also highlights the importance of providing significant stimulation to the developing brain to ensure the development of positive pathways.
In the presence of a strong support system and normal, short-term stressors, a child’s stress responses are appropriately activated and buffered through supportive relationships. In this way, positive pathways develop in the brain and train the nervous system to respond appropriately to normal life stressors. As the brain is confronted with various stressors, a healthy resilience is built so that increasingly stressful circumstances can be experienced with normal biological responses.
In the absence of supportive relationships or in the presence of extreme and/or long-lasting stressors, the stress response is inappropriately activated and can negatively affect brain and neurological development. As brain regions responsible for fear, anxiety, and impulsive responses are activated, neural pathways favoring these brain regions develop. Subsequently, brain regions responsible for reasoning, planning, and behavioral control may lack adequate pathways, leading to a propensity for negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
The human response to stress triggers a cascade of events that affect the brain, neurological system, and various endocrine glands and hormones, which explains its broad influence on health. The stress response begins when neurons experience stressors or environmental stimuli, translate the stimuli into messages, and send them along various pathways in the brain for interpretation and response. During these activities, the production of brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters is activated. Neurotransmitters send messages to other regions of the brain and other organs. These chemicals communicate with the adrenal glands (part of the endocrine system), which then produce hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine (adrenaline). These hormones are responsible for the traditional “fight or flight” response to traumatic or dangerous stressors. While these are helpful if we need to dodge a ball or a car accident, chronic activation of these hormones can weaken the health of the immune system, gut, energy systems, and pain perception, contributing to various health problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. When the stress response is overactive during childhood, it becomes overactive and has difficulty maintaining balance in adulthood. When the stress response is overactive during childhood, it becomes hyperactive and has difficulty maintaining balance in adulthood.
According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, the most common traumatic stressors affecting children include accidents, physical trauma, abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic and community violence. Other impactful stressors include the death of a family member, divorce, drug or alcohol abuse, and natural disasters. When encountered during childhood, these traumatic stressors precondition the neurological system and stress response system to produce exaggerated responses to normal stimuli. Fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome are two examples of overactive neurological responses. Normal stimuli, such as wind blowing across the face or clothing rubbing against the skin, can produce painful sensations in people with fibromyalgia, illustrating an exaggerated pain response. Normal stressors that cause the neurological system to inappropriately stimulate the bowel muscles, leading to alternating spastic constipation and diarrhea, is a classic sign of irritable bowel syndrome. The response to pain is also heightened in people with irritable bowel syndrome, which causes abdominal pain.
The specific causes of conditions associated with chronic pain and fatigue, such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, are currently unknown; however, nearly two decades of research have strongly pointed to early childhood stressors as significant risk factors for the onset of these conditions. While not all children exposed to traumatic stressors will experience emotional and physical health calamities, research shows that children exposed to traumatic events or long-term stressors are 2.7 times more likely to experience functional somatic conditions (functionally debilitating conditions for which a cause cannot be determined), such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and others. Furthermore, these conditions commonly coexist with psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression. The age at which the trauma or stress is experienced, its duration, and even the type of trauma do not seem to change this alarming statistic.
Considering the increasing prevalence of functional somatic conditions, emotional and psychiatric problems, it is important to consider the influence of childhood experiences on the development of these conditions. Dwelling on past traumas does not always help maintain health and healing and can be counterproductive. However, understanding their influence on health helps to properly identify hard-to-detect health conditions, such as fibromyalgia. It is also important to understand the purpose of protecting future generations from the debilitating effects of childhood trauma and stressors. Finally, it serves as a good example of the success of a functional medicine approach.
